Africa Great Lakes Democracy Watch

Welcome toAfrica Great Lakes Democracy Watch Blog.Our objective is to promote the institutions of democracy,social justice,Human Rights,Peace, Freedom ofExpression, and Respect to humanity in Rwanda,Uganda,DR Congo, Burundi,Sudan, Tanzania, Kenya,Ethiopia, and Somalia. We strongly believe that Africa will develop if only our presidents stop being rulers of men and become leaders of citizens. We support Breaking the Silence Campaign for DR Congo since we believe the democracy in Rwanda means peace inDRC. Follow this link to learn more about the origin of the war in both Rwanda and DR Congo:http://www.rwandadocumentsproject.net/gsdl/cgi-bin/library

Friday, December 10, 2010

Case Victoire Ingabire: Kagame interferes again in the judicial process

by Sylvain Sibomana
Secretary General, FDU-INKINGI.
Ms. Victoire Ingabire’s new bail appeal hearing: President Kagame meddling once again in the case, keeping the judiciary under a bayonet rule.

Opposition Leader Ms Victoire Ingabire, jailed by General Kagame

The bail appeal hearing of Democracy Leader, Ms. Victoire INGABIRE, Chair of FDU-INKINGI , is scheduled on Monday, 13th December 2010, at 8:00 am. She is under prison detention since 14th October 2010. As usual, President General Paul KAGAME unveiled the colour of the hearing. In a series of interviews recorded between 04-07 December 2010 in Brussels by Belgian journalists Colette BRAECKMAN and François MISSER, he unleashed his anger at Ms. INGABIRE, labelling her as a “genocide ideological minded”, without adducing the slightest evidence. Some excerpts of that smear campaign have been aired by the BBC French on 08 December 2010.

If for political reasons he can’t let the justice do its work, why he does not go all the way and rule judicial sentences directly and openly from the State House?

Given the kind of allegiance that the judiciary has toward the executive, this utterances from the highest executive office bearer, is tantamount to interference in a judicial process.

The ever changing charge sheet, as well as the endless investigations betray a hidden political agenda of the regime, to perpetuate a climate of instability and instil fear among the opposition. By dragging on the case, the regime intends also to cripple financially the opposition, by engaging it in hefty lawyers’ fees, thereby tying their hands and paralysing other political activities. The trials of the other members of the FDU-INKINGI interim Executive Committee are scheduled for 05th January 2011. While many other members throughout the country are facing muscled interrogations.

Meanwhile, in an effort to counter the growing protest among the Rwandan exile, president KAGAME called on the latter to return home and see for themselves “the change that his regime has ushered in”. The president should know that refugees are not green pasture tourists. They fled the country out of genuine fears of persecution. Instead of inviting them to come home, his regime would better stop the influx of exodus abroad, by dealing with root causes behind.

The case of Ms. Victoire INGABIRE, who volunteered and returned home only to be jailed, shows beyond any doubt, that the regime is not ready for a political settlement of the crisis.